


In Any State of Being (The Wedding)

by Stonyinspirationwriter



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers Friendship, De-Serumed Steve Rogers, Established Relationship, Hospitals, Hurt Steve, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Marriage, Marriage Proposal, Marriage ceremony, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Sick Steve, Stony - Freeform, Superhusbands (Marvel), Terminal Illnesses, Tony Angst, Wedding Planning, Weddings, wedding vows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-15
Updated: 2015-07-15
Packaged: 2018-04-09 11:45:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4347356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stonyinspirationwriter/pseuds/Stonyinspirationwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers is dying. Being reverted back to his pre-serum state has put an enormous strain on his body. His cells have started to age, causing rapid health deterioration. Tony, realizing he can't save his lover, decides to push forward with the plans they had made together before Steve grew ill.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Any State of Being (The Wedding)

**Author's Note:**

> This will forever be canon in my mind for this fandom.

Steve shakes in his sleep; violent, convulsive tremors that rock his small frame despite the two thick blankets covering him. As Tony climbs into the hospital bed,careful to avoid the tubes and wires attached to his frail lover, he is taken aback by the unsettling amount of space left on the mattress despite the bodies of two grown men.

Well, one fully grown man.

Tony's arms seem unnaturally large as they easily wrap around the much smaller man’s miniscule waist. He can feel his ribs through the thin hospital gown; feel the prick of his pointy shoulder blades against his chest. This man doesn’t feel like Steve, nor does he remotely resemble him from the back except for the familiar cut of blonde hair on his head. His feet are miles away from reaching the foot of the bed. In the dark of the night with Steve’s face turned away from him, it’s easy to feel as though he is holding a stranger.

“You should be at home…in bed”, the man murmurers between a shuttered breath. He sounds like Steve, and he smells like Steve, and in the light of day all Tony has to do is take one look into those eyes to know that it is his Steve.

“You know me better than that”, Tony responds. “Jesus, Steve! You’re freezing”. Steve always felt like his own space heater, and to feel him so cold was alarming.

“You’re so warm…” Steve says blissfully. The tremors finally settle, and his body begins to relax. After a long time period of silence Tony is sure that Steve has finally drifted off to sleep. He finds himself unable to do the same, even though his body and mind have reached a level that has long ago surpassed exhaustion.

He should be in the lab,continuing to look for a cure. He couldn’t just give up on Steve—but he had exhausted most of his resources and had still come up empty. He could feel the pressure of a migraine behind his eyes and it felt like his brain was finally getting ready to explode.

If the most pressing issue at hand was that Steve would permanently be stuck in his small form, then Tony could have worked with it. He loves Steve more than anything in the world, and despite his lover’s insecurity about his current state, they could make it work. If that had been the only issue, Tony wouldn’t be driving himself insane racking his brain for a solution to a problem deemed unsolvable. The genius had finally met his match. but wouldn’t allow himself to accept it.

Steve Rogers was dying.

For a body use to such incredible feats, being reverted back to his pre-serum state had put an enormous strain on his body. His cells had started to age, causing rapid health deterioration. Steve’s health was getting worse with each passing day. In theory, the two solutions seemed simple enough: find a way to stop cell mortality, or successfully replicate the Super Soldier Serum.

The brightest minds in the world were working continuously around the clock to try to find a solution that would Captain America, but they too were stumped. The Serum itself, though had succeeded in significantly slowing the process of cell mortality—keeping Captain America young and gorgeous through out the years with little to no signs of aging—no one in over seventy years had been able to successfully replicate the Super Soldier Serum. No one, except for Hydra. And Tony would have taken any measures, gone at any length, broken every moral boundary to save the love of his life, but The Red Skull was dead, and all the files documenting the experimentation James Barnes had undergone had long been destroyed.

The clock was ticking, and Stark had run out of tricks.

After about a couple of hours of restless sleep, Tony rose just as dawn had begun to break. He took a moment to watch the rise and fall of his small lover’s chest before slipping into the hallaway.

There were these noises in his head; thoughts pounding around the darkest parts of his mind, filling his head with dizziness and causing his vision to blur. An uproarious noise much like the violent clack of thunder; simultaneously expressing everything without saying anything at all.

He’s on his knees, his shoulders heaving with every shuttered breath. With a shaky hand, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and automatically presses the number of a familiar contact.

“”Tony? Bruce answers, his voice still raspy with sleep.

Tony was breathing heavily, unable to form any coherent words.

“Tony?” Bruce said, alarm creeping into his voice. “Are you alright? Where are you?”

“Bruce…” Tony whispered as tears began to fall from his eyes. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do…”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“You could die, or I could die—I’m not exactly getting any younger—we don’t know how much longer we have left, Steve. And whatever time we have left, I want to spend to spend it with you. I want you to be mine.”

“I am yours. I’ll always be yours”.

“I want you to be mine legally. I want to be your husband. I want to marry you.”

The memory of Tony’s proposal now seemed like a lifetime ago.

They hadn’t chosen a date yet. They were amid planning when Steve had become ill. All they knew was that they wanted a small ceremony—surrounded by close friends and free from the public eye. It was to be a day about the two of them. A celebration of a love that had been years in the making. A love that seemed to have crossed time and space. A love that hung on the fringes of morality and reason. A love so unique that nothing in history came close to matching it.

It was supposed to mark the beginning of the rest of their lives together. But Steve’s life had significantly been cut short, along with their idea of forever. Time had become their enemy. There just wasn’t enough of it.

It was now or never.

“Let’s do this now.”

“Now? In a hospital?

“Why not? We’ve got everything we need here.”

Tony sat beside his lovers hospital bed, grasping a frail hand in two of his.

Steve seemed the most uneasy during the scrutiny of daylight, when Tony could clearly see him in his emaciated state. Tony had seen him in every state—he had exposed his very soul to him on multiple occasions, but he had never felt as naked as he did in this state. All along Steve had anticipated the day when Tony would look at him with pity, and be unable to see nothing else but the small and sickly man before him—but just as he always had, Tony surprised him. Yet Steve still couldn’t shake the thoughts of fear and insecurity that continued to paw at his mind.

“You still want to marry me? Like this?”

“I love you, Steve—tall and muscular, short and thin—I don’t give a fuck! I love you.”

Even now as Steve searched those golden brown eyes, he still saw nothing of the things he feared he would see. All he saw was the same unwavering love and devotion that had emulated from his lover since the very beginning.

Steve could feel the sting of tears beginning to form in his eyes.

“I’m so sorry about this”, Steve said.

“For what? You always say that I’m the most self-deprecating person on this planet, but you’ve got me beat, babe.”

They laughed even as the tears began to fall from both of their eyes. Bittersweet tears intermingled with laughter. Then, as quickly as it had began, it ended. A loaded silenced followed as the two men placed their foreheads together. It was a long time before either of them spoke.

“Forever,” Steve finally murmured.

“And then some”, Tony answered before placing his lips on Steve’s.

************************************************************************

The whole thing was set up in less than two hours.

Outside, on the hospital grounds, among close friends—surrounded by a garden of flowers and near a little decorative pond with a babbling waterfall—Tony watched as Bucky slowly led Steve through the little stone path.

Bucky had his arm linked with Steve, supporting the smaller man as he took another labored step. He was breathing hard, slightly wheezing, but he walked on with the determination of reaching Tony.

Rodey and Pepper stood beside Tony while Sam and Natasha awaited Steve on the other side.

“End of the line, Pal.” Bucky whispered to Steve as they finally reached the end of their path. He embraced Steve for a long time, reluctant to let go of the man that had managed to bring him back from the darkest depth of his mind. His best friend not only in his first life, but also in his present. When he finally managed to pull away, he turned to Tony with tears.

“Take care of him, you here? Or else you’ll have me to kick your ass back in line,” Bucky warned, with all the sincerity he could possibly muster before placing Steve’s hand in Tony’s.

As the officiant, Bruce began to recite the opening speech: “In marriage, we give ourselves freely and generously into the hands of the one we love, and in doing so, each of us receives the love and trust of the other as our most precious gift. But even as that gift is shared by two people who are in love, it also touches the friends and family members who in various ways support and contribute to the relationship--"

Steve and Tony barely heard a word of it. They were so involved in intimately staring into one anther’s eyes that everyone laughed as it took several attempts from Bruce to regain the couples attention.

Then they began their vows:

“I, Anthony Edward Stark, take you, Steven Grant Rogers, to be my husband.”

“I, Steven Grant Rogers, take you, Anthony Edward Stark, to be my husband.”

“In this moment I promise before these witnesses to love you and care for you all of our days.”

“I accept you with your faults and your strengths, even as I offer myself with my faults and strengths.”

“I promise to support you when you need support and to turn to you when I need support.”

“I choose you as the one with whom I will spend my life.”

As their lips met in the kiss that would forever join them as one, everything else seemed to melt away.

It was better than they could have ever planned. They had everything they could ever want right here.

It was a lifetime of happiness in their own short amount of time.

**Author's Note:**

> What do you think about their little wedding?


End file.
